


Sweets & Treats

by Shman



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2018-11-17 06:18:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11269713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shman/pseuds/Shman
Summary: Dean, Sam, Charlie & Jo are excited for their summer break.Anna, Gabe & Cas move to Kansas for a new start (and so Gabe can fullfil his dream of opening a candy store).New neighbours, new friends & good times.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone,  
> this is my first attempt at writing a fic.  
> It's fairly long, but I'm just posting the first chapter for now cause I'm a bit nervous about sharing it...
> 
> It's just me & my spellcheck, so I'm sorry for any mistakes - I hope you like it & let me know if you'd like to read more :)

“Hey Sammy! Wrap it up Casanova!” Dean yells out the window of the impala, earning himself a classic ‘bitch-face’ from his little brother, a shy smile from the pretty blonde he’s been talking to and a slap across the chest from his best friend Charlie. The fiery red-head currently riding shotgun gives Dean a sly smile and says  
“Just cause YOU’RE not getting any, doesn’t mean you have to get in Sam’s way too.”  
“C’mon Charles,” Dean says clutching his chest and giving her puppy dog eyes, “Why you gotta kick a man when he’s down? Besides, you know I’m only joking, gotta get him to make a move on Jess soon or she’s going to give up on him.”  
“Yeah, yeah, I’m SURE you’re only doing this for Sam’s sake, not because you enjoy teasing the crap outta him or anything…”  
Dean grins and looks over to see his humungous little brother heading towards the car.  
“Finally!” he says, starting the engine and sighing contentedly at the smooth purr of his baby.  
“Screw you Dean!” Sam says, chucking his bag in the backseat and climbing in after it, “Jess thinks you’re an idiot by the way.”  
“I think I’m adorable” Dean pouts at him in the rear-view mirror  
“Whatever, Jerk.” Sam fires back, smiling a little  
“Bitch!” replies Dean as he throws the impala into gear and takes off into town.

After a few minutes of driving Charlie turns to look at them both “So, what’s in store for the Summer boys? Movie nights, gaming marathons, maybe a trip to the lake?”  
Dean shrugs “Gotta take a few make-up classes and then probably spend some time at Bobby’s, but sure, a lake trip sounds fun.”  
Sam scoffs “Just a few make-up classes Dean?”  
“Hey, we can’t all be big-ass nerds like you Sammy!”  
“Now boys,” Charlie adds “I’m headed to summer school for a few extra credit classes too and I’m pretty sure I beat you both for the ‘Queen of the Nerds’ title thank you very much!” She cracks her neck and wiggles her fingers over an imaginary keyboard.  
“Okay Charlie, we know you’re the queen of computers and all things nerdy” Sam says just as Dean pipes up “All hail the Queen of Moondoor” in reference to Charlies’ LARPing kingdom.  
“Thanks Sam,” She laughs and then motions to Dean “As you were handmaiden.”  
Dean shakes his head muttering “One time, I agreed to be your handmaiden ONE time, couldn’t you just knight me or something already?”  
Sam laughs “C’mon Dean, it’s your own special title and you love it!”  
“Yeah, you’re right, I do” He grins over at Charlie who is positively beaming at him.  
Suddenly she’s pointing across the street exclaiming “Hey! That’s new!”  
Dean slows the car down and they are all looking at the old-style candy shop come ice-cream parlour with a brand new sign that reads: Novak’s Sweets & Treats.  
“Yeah, hasn’t that place been empty for years?” Sam asks as they notice movement in the window.  
They see a short man with golden-brown hair setting up a massive display of lollipops, candies and all sorts of goodies while talking over his shoulder to someone. The person behind him looks younger, maybe Dean’s age, with dark ruffled hair and a rather unimpressed look on his face. It looks like he’s a little fed-up with whatever the shorter guy is saying.

In the midst of checking out the new shop, and maybe its new owners as well, none of them had realised that Dean had let the impala come to a complete stop. The sudden honking of a horn from the car behind them shocked all three of them and made both men in the shop window turn to look. Dean gave an awkward wave and head-nod combo towards the shop owners, earning a grin and a wave from the shorter man and a curious head-tilt from the younger, dark-haired guy. Damn if that didn’t send a shiver down Dean’s spine. Shaking his head a little, not wanting to pro-long the embarrassment, Dean quickly took off in the impala while Sam and Charlie shared a knowing smile.

♦♥♦

When they pulled up at the Winchester’s house , which just happened to be right next door to where Charlie lived as well, Dean turned towards her and asked “Nintendo?”  
“Nintendo!” Charlie confirmed before jumping out of the impala and racing Dean inside.  
Sam however, noticed the large moving van parked a few doors down and gave a friendly wave to the pretty red head who seemed to be directing the movers. She smiled and waved in return. Sam shrugged a little and followed the other two inside figuring he’d find out about the new neighbours soon enough. Nothing ever stays a secret in Lawrence for long.

Sam was greeted with “You took your time” as Dean threw a controller at him and the countdown for Mario kart began.  
“Yeah, so it looks like Charlie & Jo are going to have some new neighbours.”  
“What?”  
“Huh?”  
Dean and Charlie stopped playing to look at Sam, who easily drove past their character and into first place before replying “You know, there was a moving van parked in the driveway and people all over the place? Seriously guys?”  
They jumped up, controllers forgotten and raced back outside. Just as they reached the house beside Charlies, they caught up with Ellen, Charlies foster mom.  
“Hey you two! Looks like someone’s finally bought the old Shurley house!” She greeted them warmly and looking back behind Dean added “What’ve you done with Sam?”  
“He’s inside,” Dean said dismissively “So, what’s the word on the new folks Ellen?”  
“Well Dean Winchester, if you give me two seconds to go introduce myself, I’ll let you know.” She replied, shaking her head at him and turning back towards the house next door.

The red-haired woman was shaking hands with one of the movers and thanking him as he got into the van and pulled away. Ellen raised her hand and waved as she called across the yard  
“Hey there neighbour, finished moving in already?”  
The newest addition to their neighbourhood smiled their way,  
“Just the big things, we’ve still got to unpack everything and make sure it all fits!” she said, pulling a sightly worried smile and then laughing a little.  
“I’m Anna, by the way, Anna Milton. I’ll be living here with my brothers Gabriel and Castiel Novak”  
“Pleasure to meet you Anna, I’m Ellen and this is might daughter Charlie.”  
Dean couldn’t help but smile and nudge Charlie when Ellen said ‘my daughter’ there was no way Ellen way letting Charlie go back to the foster system.  
“My other daughter Jo is still at hockey practice, but we live right next door here. Oh and this is Dean Winchester, he’s on the other side of us with his Mom and brother, Mary and Sam.”  
“Pleased to meet you Miss Milton.” Dean said, holding out his hand and trying to ignore Charlie’s smirking at his sudden formal politeness.  
“Oh please, Anna’s fine! And it’s a pleasure to meet you both as well.” She added shaking both Dean and Charlies’ hands.  
“Are you both still in school?” she asked,  
“Yeah!” Charlie replied “Jo, Dean and I are all going to be Seniors next year and Sam, Dean’s brother will be a freshman.”  
“Oh, how wonderful!” Anna exclaimed, her whole face lighting up. “My brother Castiel will be a senior next year as well and it would be so nice for him to know some people before he has to start over again at a new school. Do you think perhaps you could come around and meet him sometime, if you don’t mind that is; He’s actually helping Gabe set up the new store today, which they BOTH insisted was more important than the joy that is moving. The store is Gabe’s dream, he’s basically got one hell of a sweet tooth and has always wanted to own his own candy store, so we thought ‘new town, fresh start, what better time to do it that now’, you know?” The smile she had on her face from talking about her brother’s was quickly replaced with an embarrassed blush “Oh, I’m sorry I’m rambling a bit aren’t I…” she trailed off.

It was obvious to all three of her spectators that Anna loved her brothers very much. For the Winchesters and Harvelles, family was definitely a number 1 priority, so the Milton-Novak household was going to be a very welcome addition to the neighbourhood.  
“I’m sure the kids would love to meet Castiel sometime,” said Ellen, sensing Anna’s embarrassment, smiling and turning to leave “Anyway, we’d best let you get to that unpacking, but please, don’t hesitate to give us a shout if you need anything, you know where we are. Oh, and if you’re looking for and easy dinner, swing by the Roadhouse tonight and we’ll hook you up with the best burgers in town!” she added with a wink.  
“Thank you so much! It was wonderful to meet you all.” Anna replied, giving them a small wave and heading towards the house.

As they were making their way back across Ellen’s lawn, Charlie elbowed Dean in the ribs,  
“A candy store! Dean that must be the one we drove past today! You know, with the hottie in the window?” Dean felt his face flush & quickly glanced at Ellen before shooting Charlie a not-so-subtle ‘shut-up!’ look. “I mean,” she continued “not that I swing that way, but even I gotta appreciate how dreamy he was!”  
Ellen chuckled at her daughter’s description before giving them both a gentle push towards the Winchesters house “You two go have fun gossiping then, and Charlie, I want you home by 6 so we can head to the Roadhouse ASAP when Jo gets home.”  
“Yes Ma’am!” Charlie mock saluted, before grabbing Dean’s arm and dragging him back to his house.

“So?” Sam asked, looking up from NEXT year’s school books. Dean shook his head at how much a nerd his little brother was before answering “SO, there’s a pretty lady with red hair, her name’s Anna.”  
“AND” Charlie cut in, talking a little too fast “She said she’s going to be living there with her brothers who WE think are those two guys we saw at the new store in town. She said their names were Gabriel and Castiel!”  
“Sound Biblical” said Sam  
“Apparently Castiel is going to be a senior with us, so that’ll be fun, new guy and all…” Dean added with a shrug. Charlie smirked and raised her eyebrows a couple of times at Sam, who tried not to laugh and buried his head in his books again before giving his brother a reply of “yeah, I’m sure it will be.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading Chapter 1 & to those of you who've left kudos ♥  
> Here's a little bit more for you :)

A few hours later, they heard the sounds of keys in the lock and voices chatting on the front step. As the door opened, Jo’s voice floated down the hallway saying “Thanks again for the ride Mrs W,” and then she was shouting inside “C’MON CHARLIE! WE GOTTA GET GOING!”  
Dean and Charlie wandered out from the lounge and Dean waved at the now retreating blonde girl  
“Hi Jo, Bye Jo” he said as Charlie giggled and raced after her  
“You know what she’s like - see you tomorrow Dean!"  
Dean turned to the blonde woman next to him, slinging an arm over her shoulders and leaning his head into hers “Hi Mom”  
“Hey Sweetie” She said, smiling up at him “How was school?”  
“Eh,” Dean shrugs “School-like.”  
Suddenly her eyes go wide with realisation “Your last day as a Junior! We should celebrate.” She calls down the hall “Sam! Last day of school, we’re going to the Roadhouse!”  
They hear the distinctive sound of books closing and Sam rustling around before the younger Winchester emerges “Burgers and Pie?” he asks hopefully.  
“Burgers and Pie.” She confirms reaching up and fixing his brown hair. Dean is already out the door, twirling the impala keys around his index finger as Sam grabs his coat and Mary locks up after them.  
“Love me some pie.” Dean grins back at them as he unlocks the impala.

The Roadhouse is Ellen’s pride and joy. A bar and grill she started with her husband Bill many years ago and she really wasn’t over-embellishing when she had told Anna that they served the best burgers in town. Because of their ‘best burgers’ status, it was a popular spot amongst the locals of Lawrence and they rarely had too quiet of a night. Friday night, end of school and the place was packed. Luckily Ellen had Charlie and Jo waitressing for her tonight so when the Winchesters walked through the door Charlie bounced up to them saying “Hey guys! There’s a booth in my section with your name on it.” The followed her through the crowd and as they passed Jo, Dean gave her a quick nudge with his shoulder “Come say hi, when you’ve got a sec?” he asked.  
“You know I will!” she grinned back, before grabbing some menus and heading over to greet the family that had just walked in behind them.  
“Sooooooooo, the usual?” Charlie asked, not even bothering to give them menus as she started scribbling their order on her waitressing pad.  
“Hey Charles,” Dean started  
“Oh my God Dean, I’ll get your damn pie!” She huffed at him, turning her pad and pointing to the word ‘PIE!’ in capital letters, which she had underlined three times.  
“Well, she DID forget that one time…” Dean said to his family grinning at her retreating form.  
Sam just shook his head at his brother as Mary smiled at them both.  
“Summer holidays boys” she said “what are we going to do for 3 whole months?”  
“Dean’s got summer school!” Sam piped up  
“Bitch” Dean snapped back, pausing for Sam’s reply of “Jerk” before explaining to his Mom “It’s only for a bit of Maths stuff and it’s only the first few weeks AND it’s not even whole days.” He gave Mary a sheepish look before continuing “I guess I kinda got behind a bit when I was fixing up Baby, but Bobby gave me extra credit in Auto-shop for that, so… yeah…” he trailed off looking down at his hands in his lap.  
“Well, that’s kind of Bobby, and it was kind of him to help you with the car as well,” Mary said softly, as Dean raised his head to look at her again “The impala looks beautiful Dean, your father would be proud.” There was a moment of heavy silence between the three of them at the mention of their father, only to be broken by Charlie’s re-arrival at their table.

She placed their drinks down in front of them and loudly whispered “Hottie neighbours at the bar!  
with a not-so-subtle head jerk behind her. Shaking his head at Charlies antics, and watching her dart off to serve another table , Dean looked past her towards the bar. He quickly noticed the long red hair belonging to Anna Milton and saw that she was with the shorter man that they had seen in the window of ‘Novak’s Sweets & Treats’ earlier that afternoon. It seemed that the darker haired guy, Castiel, wasn’t with them.  
“So that must be, ummmm, what was it, Gabriel?” Sam said, turning in his seat so that he could see what Dean was looking at.   
“What’s this?” Mary asked, also looking over “Hottie neighbours?”  
Dean facepalmed at his Mothers’ use of Charlies new nickname for them but answered her anyway  
“Yeah, they moved in to the old Shurley house today. Anna Milton and her two brothers Gabriel and Castiel, their name is Novak or something though, not Milton.”  
“Apparently the guy over there is opening a candy store and the other brother is going to be a senior with Dean!” Sam added.  
“Well, I guess I’ll have to go introduce myself sometime this weekend” said Mary “We’ll have to welcome them to the neighbourhood of course.” She added with a smirk “It might be time for a family BBQ, what do you say boys?”  
Dean grinned at Sam, who was already smiling at his brother. Their Mom’s ‘family BBQ’s’ were really just her excuse to have a big party and fill their yard with lots of friends, fun and laughter. Sam and Dean LOVED them. There were some usual attendees like the Winchesters, Harvelles, Bobby and the Roadhouse crew and then Mary always managed to drum up some other neighbours and friends just to add to the awesomeness. The last few occasions, Dean had managed to sneak a few beers for himself, Sam, Jo and Charlie so they could have their own ‘private’ party as well. For both Sam and Dean, some of their best memories were of ‘Family BBQ’s’ so what better way to make the new neighbours feel welcome?  
“Definitely!” The brothers said in unison. 

♦♥♦

The Winchesters watched as Ellen served Anna and Gabriel, chatting with them for a while and no doubt giving them a ‘welcome to the town’ discount, because that’s just the kind of person she was. Eventually, they left with their meal and Mary turned back to her boys to start planning the family BBQ. “I think next weekend would be good, don’t you?” She asked, looking from Dean to Sam and back again.  
“Sounds great Mom.” Said Sam  
“Saturday afternoon?” asked Dean  
“Lock it in!” She grinned.   
“Lock what in?” asked Charlie as she returned with their meals, bringing them 3 plates loaded up with huge burgers and extra fries.  
“Family BBQ next Saturday” Dean said, stealing a fry before she could even get the plate to the table.   
“Did I just hear the words Family BBQ?” Jo asked as she did a double-take past their booth.  
“You know it” Dean winked  
“Next Saturday” Charlie added  
“New Neighbours” said Sam  
“Gotta make them feel at welcome now, don’t we?” said Mary  
“You’re on!” Jo said, holding out her fist & bumping it against Deans “I’ll tell Mom.” She added, ducking back towards the kitchen.

Charlie left them to enjoy their meal and have some time together and once their burgers were finished she brought over a whole pie, a knife and three plates. “One pie, as ordered.” She said “It’s butterscotch today Dean, hope you like it! If not, take it up with Ellen.” She said, laughing at the thought of Dean actually NOT liking a pie of any variety. Basically drooling, Dean made sure to cut his Mom and brother a slice first, before serving himself and if he maybe got a slightly bigger piece on his own plate no one needed to know. Moaning around his first mouthful, he looked over at Mary and mumbled out the side of his mouth “Mom, make sure we have pie next week, okay?” She laughed at him, shook her head slightly and said “For you Sweetheart, Always.”

By the time they were ready to leave, word of the family BBQ had spread around the Roadhouse and it turns out that the cook, Balthazar, bartender, Ash and the other waitresses Pamela and Tessa were all keen to attend. Each of them offering to bring various dishes and drinks. Ellen had come to their table quickly to tell Mary that she’d come by tomorrow to help finalise their plans and by the end of the night, the Winchesters were headed home with full stomachs and happy hearts. Who doesn’t love it when a plan comes together?

♦♥♦

The next morning, Dean was up early, early for him anyway. 7am on a Saturday was usually the time for sleep ins or pajama days or something. Today however, he wanted to head to ‘Singer’s Salvage’ Auto-repairs shop and talk to Bobby about maybe working some hours for him over the summer. Bobby Singer was a long-time family friend and had been very close with Dean’s father when they were younger. Ever since the accident, he had taken it upon himself to act as a sort of father figure to Sam and Dean. Both boys and Mary were eternally grateful for his presence in their lives. After stealing a mouthful of coffee, Dean lent down and kissed his Mom on the cheek before grabbing a piece of toast and holding it between his teeth as he continued to get ready. Grabbing his keys and heading for the door, still pulling on his flannel over-shirt he heard Mary call out “make sure you tell Bobby about next weekend!” Dean “mhmmm’d” in reply as he walked outside. 

Still fixing his collar and rolling up his sleeves as he got to the driver’s door, he noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye and looked up to see someone running down their street. The guy was wearing a blue singlet, dark grey running shorts, had earphones in, tanned skin and let’s face it the ultimate head of dark bed hair. Dean’s jaw went a little slack at the sight of him, almost making him lose his toast as he fumbled, juggled and eventually caught it at the last second. “Sonofabitch” he breathed out shaking his head to clear his thoughts and quickly getting in to his car. Thankfully, the guy had been too focused on his run to notice Dean staring at him, so Dean sighed to himself, revved Baby’s engine a little bit and took off up the street in the opposite direction. He let himself take a quick peek in the rear view mirror, noticing that the guy had turned to look at the sleek black car but also realising he had stopped running and was heading into the newly occupied house next to Charlies. “Oh. Son. Of. A. Bitch.” Dean said again, as it dawned on him that this was his new neighbour and he was definitely in trouble.

The ten minute drive to Bobby’s allowed enough time for Dean to blast AC/DC and clear his head. As he pulled the impala into the drive of ‘Singer’s Salvage’ he saw Bobby’s large guard dog Rumsfeld and a couple of the mechanics look over. “Morning Dean” one of the older mechanics, Rufus, greeted him as he walked past “Hey Rufus, is Bobby in the office?” Rufus nodded before grabbing a wrench and turning back to the car he was working on. “Hey Deano, what’re you doing here?” Ash, Ellen’s Bartender slash Bobby’s genius engineer, rolled out from under an old truck. “Hey Ash, just wanted to see if Bobby might let me give you guys a hand around here over the summer, that’s all”  
“Well Boy, I’m sure these two could use the extra help” he heard Bobby’s voice right behind him.  
“Oh, hey Bobby, sorry, I was kinda hoping to ask you a bit better than that.” Dean said, suddenly nervous that Bobby would tell him no, or think he wasn’t good enough.  
“Dean ya Idjit, I know you know you’re way around a car and I was actually going to ask your Mamma if I could give you a few jobs if you hadn’t of come and asked me yerself, so quit fidgeting and come fill in some damn paperwork or somethin’…”  
As they made their way back to the office, Bobby looked over at him noticing Dean was a little lost in his own thoughts “Everything alright Son?”  
Dean looked up at the older man in his worn trucker cap, with his salt and pepper beard and fatherly presence and smiled “yeah Bobby, everything’s great.”  
“Cause you know you can talk to me Dean, ya know, if you ever need to…” he trailed off awkwardly.   
“Hey old man, no chick flick moments remember,” Dean said cracking a grin at Bobby as the mechanic huffed and stomped forward into his office.   
“Whatever ya Idjit, just fill these out for me and lemme know when you gotta be at the school, so I know not to ask you to come in.”  
“Thanks Bobby!” Dean said signing a few forms and then adding “My make-up classes are Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings, any other time, I’m all yours”  
“Well ain’t I the lucky one” Bobby replied sarcastically adding “See you Tuesday then, bright and early – not later than 8!” waving Dean out of his office.  
“Oh, Bobby, I almost forgot, family BBQ next Saturday afternoon! Ash already knows, but bring Rufus would you?”  
“Sounds good, now get outta here and enjoy your summer.”

Dean made his way back through the garage, saying his goodbyes to Ash and Rufus as he went. The whole thing had taken him less than an hour and now he was out and about at 8am on a Saturday for no real reason. This definitely called for coffee. He grabbed his phone out and called Charlie   
“Hey Charles, yeah I know what time it is, meet me at Chuck’s? Coffee’s on me. Oh and bring Jo if you can.” he hung up, jumped back into the impala and headed back into town. Chuck’s café just happened to be right opposite the new candy store that Dean desperately wanted to get a closer look at. When he pulled into a parking space just outside Novak’s, he noticed that once again, there were multiple figures moving around inside the new store, he didn’t stop to look too closely by himself, instead heading over to Chuck’s to grab them a table.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Everyone *waves*  
> Thanks for the kudos so far :)  
> Once again, it's me,myself & I, so sorry for any mistakes ♥

Inside the new ice-cream parlour candy store Gabriel hissed as he ran into a box that Castiel was supposed to be moving. He cuffed his brother on the back of the head  
“Hey Bro, pay attention would you? What’s got you making heart eyes out the window anyway?” He said, peering past Castiel to see a dirty-blonde, flannel clad boy heading towards the café opposite them. Gabe chuckled, snapping his fingers at Anna and pointing first at Castiel and then out the window. Anna looked over towards the café and then whispered to Gabriel “I think that’s Dean, the boy I met yesterday, he lives on the same street as us!”  
“Well Sis, I think we might be in need of a caffeine pick-me-up sometime soon, and I know just the little brother to fetch it for us”  
“Gabe,” She sighed, smiling,  
“What?” Gabe asked, giving her is most innocent face.  
“Just don’t push him okay?”  
“Deal.” Said Gabe, as he noticed Castiel shake his head a little and start working again.

The little bell on the door of Chuck’s jingled as Charlie and Jo, both looking tired and just a tad annoyed, made their way over to the table where Dean was.  
“Dude,” said Jo, “You couldn’t have called Benny, or Aaron or hell, even SAM to share your sudden love of early mornings with?”  
“Hey now, I already ordered and paid for your chai latte,” he said passing Jo a large take-away cup “and your triple shot caramel concoction” He added, handing the other to Charlie.  
“Thanks Dean, we loooooooveeeeee yoooooooou” teased Charlie, leaning over and nuzzling his shoulder.  
“But really, why are we here?” she added, sitting up and taking a sip of her highly caffeinated, extra sugary beverage. Dean took a sip of his own, black coffee and thrust his chin towards ‘Sweets & Treats’  
“I dunno, thought it might be open and we could check it out, or you know,” he started fiddling with the plastic lid of his coffee “see if we could help out with setting up or something,” Dean was starting to rush his words a little “your Mom DID offer to help out if they needed anything, and Anna said she’d like us to meet her brothers or something…”  
“So, do you wanna check out the shop, or the guys inside?” Jo, queen of subtlety, asked him. Dean almost spat his mouthful of coffee out, glaring at Charlie. She was the only one Dean had ever talked to about his, maybe not-so-straight thoughts and feelings. Well, her and Sammy of course, he told Sam everything.  
“Jo!” Charlie admonished her with a glare  
“What?” Jo said “It’s 8am on a Saturday, I’m tired and I think it’s about time Dean just came clean and told me he’s into guys.”  
“Dean,” Charlie began, “I swear I -”  
“She didn’t tell me anything, I kind of figured it out on my own and you can bet I’m not the only one” Jo told him with a pointed look.  
“Okay fine,” sighed Dean, rubbing his hands over his face “Anna said one of her brother’s Castiel was going to be a senior with us and I guess I’m kinda curious to meet him.”  
“Plus he’s all kinds of gorgeous” Charlie added in with a wink. It was Jo’s turn to choke on her coffee  
“And that’s coming from our resident lesbian, so screw it, let’s go meet the guy.”  
“What are we going to say to them?” Dean asked, suddenly nervous for the second time that morning. Geez Winchester, pull yourself together, he thought.  
“I think I’ve got a plan,” said Charlie jumping up and heading over to the counter. “Hey Chuck,” she said getting the owners attention  
“Oh, hi Charlie, what can I do for you?”  
“Do you reckon you can weave your magic and make us three coffees for the new folks in the shop over there?”

Chuck was some kind of coffee God or genius or whatever you want to call it. He had a gift. He could basically look at a person and know exactly what to make them. Sure he had menus for his shop, cause some people thought he was weird suggesting they trust him to know what they want, but the first time Dean and Charlie had stumbled into his café, he made Dean a long black and Charlie a triple shot caramel latte, extra hot & it was the best coffee they’d ever tasted.  
“Uh, sure Charlie, the two guys actually came in yesterday, but the red head looks like a chai latte kind of girl” he said with a small smile in Jo’s direction. Turning back to his coffee machine, he took a few minutes, finally coming back to Charlie with three cups (a chai latte on soy, a white chocolate double-caramel mocha and a long black) in a take-away carry tray. Jo and Dean had joined Charlie at the counter and Dean handed Chuck some cash for the coffee’s shooting him a quick “Thanks man, keep the change” as he grabbed the carry tray and headed for the door.  
“Geez, where’s the fire?” muttered Jo in Charlies ear and Charlie just giggled in response  
“Come ON, we can’t let him make a fool of himself without any witnesses” she replied, grabbing Jo and dragging her after Dean. 

Gabe was just contemplating how best to con Castiel into going and buying them coffee, when he saw the three teenagers exiting Chuck’s and heading towards his shop. The blonde boy had a carry tray with three coffees in one hand, but he already had a coffee of his own in the other, as did the two girls following him. With his almost permanent smirk, he grabbed Anna’s arm, motioning towards the window again and whispering “looks like you were right Anna, I don’t think I’m going to have to push Cassie at all.”  
Anna just smiled at him and started walking towards the shop door.  
“No, no, no!” Gabe said pulling her back a little “Let Cassie get it.”

Dean turned back to Charlie and Jo “Do you think one of you can knock? Kinda got my hands full here…” Jo rolled her eyes at him, but stepped forward and rapped her knuckle on the glass door. The heard some rustling from inside and a cheerful voice yelled “Hey Bro, get the door would you?”  
The dark-haired guy Dean had seen this morning, Castiel - his name was Castiel, emerged from a back room and holy shit, that bed hair was a permanent thing apparently. Dean gulped audibly and both Charlie and Jo patted him on the back, giving each other a sideways grin. 

“Gabriel, do you think you could actually do something for yourself for one mi…” Castiel was muttering, finally looking up as he reached for the door handle to let whoever it was in. “nute.” He finished as his blue eyes widened in shock and he saw the stunning blonde boy from earlier, flanked by a bouncy red-haired girl on one side and a sassy looking blonde on the other. As he swung open the shop door, he greeted them with a deep, gravelly “Hello” that literally gave Dean goose bumps.  
“Hey,” he said, finally looking up into Castiels eyes and, holy crap they were some kind of fantasy blue. After a minute of awkwardly watching the two boys stare at each other, Charlie piped up “So, we brought coffee and we were wondering if there was anything we could do to help, you know, set up the shop or show you around town, or anything like that? She said, squeezing past Dean and Castiel and into the shop, closely followed by Jo. “Oh, yeah, coffee,” Dean said holding the carry-tray from Chuck’s a little higher in front of Castiel.  
“Please, come in” Castiel said, motioning towards the counter that Gabriel and Anna were leaning against. “Uh, thanks” Dean nodded, trying desperately not to blush.

“Charlie, Dean!” It’s lovely to see you again Anna said, walking towards them “I see you met my baby brother Castiel.”  
“Please Anna, I am hardly a baby anymore.” Castiel replied  
Anna ignored him and motioned back behind her “and THIS, is Gabriel Novak, the mastermind behind Sweets & Treats! Or should I say the guy who would literally look for any excuse to be able to buy bulk candy.” She finished laughing as she caught Gabe popping a chuppa-chup in his mouth.  
“What can I say, I’m a sucker for Zücker!” he said, laughing at his own joke  
Dean and Jo looked confused and Charlie snorted at the terrible pun.  
“Zücker is sugar in German.” She explained to them.  
“Riiiiiight,” said Dean raising one eyebrow as he looked at Gabe.  
“Gabe, Castiel, this is Dean, Charlie and you must be Jo.” Anna said, shaking Jo’s free hand.  
“Got it in one,” Jo replied smiling at her and giving Gabe a small nod.  
Dean coughed a little “Ah, anyway, we brought you guys some coffee from Chuck’s, and I’m guessing THIS” he handed over the white chocolate double-caramel mocha to Gabe “Must be for Mr sweet tooth “This one’s for you” he added handing the chai latte to Anna “and apparently,” he said, turning back to Castiel, “YOU’RE the only other person around here who drinks normal coffee,” he finished, handing over the long black and regaining enough of his Dean Winchester charm to wink at the dark-haired guy in front of him.  
“Thank you Dean.” Said Castiel, taking the coffee from him and it was all Dean could do not to blush at the way his name sounded in that deep baritone. “I believe my brother and sister were just about to ask me to go and get some coffees so it seems you have saved me a trip.” He said with a small smile towards Dean and a slight eyebrow raise in Gabe and Anna’s direction. 

Gabe shrugged at his brother and Anna looked like she was hiding a smile, obviously there was some in joke between the siblings that Dean, Charlie and Jo were missing, but it didn’t seem worth asking for an explanation. “So, is there anything we might be able to do to help you guys out?” Jo asked “Oh, and how’d you like the burgers last night?”  
Castiel tilted his head to the side, looking curiously at Jo, and yep Dean got that damn tingle down his spine again.  
“Oh Cassie,” Anna began to explain “Jo and Charlie are Ellen’s girls and Ellen owns the Roadhouse, where those delicious burgers came from last night. They’re actually our next door neighbours as well, and Dean lives in the house on the other side, a few doors up from ours!” She directed her comments back to Jo “Your Mom was right, best burgers in town, not that we’ve tried any others, but I can say for certain, there’s no way we need too!”  
“Yes.” Castiel said “They were most excellent, Thank you.”  
“Best burger I’ve had in years!” Gabe piped up from the counter, which he was now sitting on, swinging his legs like a small child.

After the general introductions, small talk and coffee were done, Anna had told them that they had everything under control with the shop and not to worry about helping. Gabe, however, had other ideas and set them to work carrying boxes from the back, stacking candy on shelves and, after sussing out his skill level, even managed to get Dean to look at the ice cream display freezers, making sure that everything was connected properly before they turned them on.

“Okay Gabe, I think we’re good here.” Dean said, flicking on the freezers and watching the temperature slowly drop to below freezing.  
"Righteo, thanks Deano!” Gabe said, wandering over to the walk-in freezer room to start taking inventory of their ice-cream stock. Dean rolled his eyes at the nickname, Ash used it all the time, but he would rather not have Castiel thinking of him as ‘Deano’.  
Speaking of Castiel, he thought to himself, it seemed a little like he’d been avoiding Dean, working out the back as much as he could and barely coming near the ice-cream parlour side of the shop unless Gabe specifically made him. Dean sighed to himself and looked around, noticing that Charlie and Jo were both missing as well. “Hey Anna,” he called “Where is everyone?"  
“Oh they’re out the back, actually they’ve been out there a while, do you mind checking on them?” she replied waving her hand towards the back room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters for you today, cause I love awkward Destiel interactions & Dean being cool with his bisexuality!  
> Thanks again for reading & kudos  
> Much love ♥

Dean made his way back, hearing Charlie’s laughter and Jo chatting away. As he came through the doorway he saw Charlie flat on the floor covered in sherbet packets, Jo trying to pick them up and Castiel watching on in amusement.  
“Uh, guys?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at them  
“Oh, Hello Dean” said Castiel, looking up at him and then quickly looking back to Charlie  
“We uh, kind of maybe, sorta screwed up a little…” Charlie grinned up at him from underneath her Sherbet blanket.  
Dean took a moment to fully take in the surroundings and then burst out laughing “You think Charles?” It looked like there had been a few boxes of sherbet packets that had been shrink wrapped together and when someone (Charlie) had tried to pull the shrink wrap off she’d accidentally pulled open a box of sherbet as well, somehow fallen over and had been caught in a flood of candy packets. Dean finally managed to get his laughter under control, glancing at Castiel who was wide eyed and just staring at Dean. Great, Dean thought, quickly regaining his composure, he probably thinks you’re an idiot, laughing your ass off at something like that. Little did Dean know Castiel thought the exact opposite. 

“Sorry about this Cas” Dean said, helping Charlie up and starting to gather up the loose packets with Jo “Charlie’s pretty helpful, but she can be a bit clumsy ya know?”  
“Understatement of the year.” Muttered Jo as Dean looked up at Castiel, who was doing that damn head tilt and frowning slightly at him.  
“Cas?” Dean asked, hesitantly standing up and moving towards him “Everything okay?”  
“You called me Cas.” He replied “Twice.”  
“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to man, I have a habit of giving everyone nicknames, I’m sorry Castiel, I won’t do it again.”  
“No!” Castiel said quickly, reaching out for Dean’s shoulder “No one’s ever called me that before. I, I think I like it.” He smiled shyly at Dean.  
Suddenly Gabe’s voice burst into the room “Oooooooh Caaaaaaaassssie!” Cas’s hand shot back from Dean’s shoulder and he frowned in Gabriel’s direction muttering “I definitely like it better than Cassie, that’s for sure.” Dean was 95% positive he wasn’t supposed to hear that remark, but he couldn’t help chuckling at it anyway, earning himself a small sideways smile from Cas. Gabe popped his head around the corner and grinned at them “having fun out here?” he asked eyes scanning the room “I’m all for laughter and a good time, but maybe we could get the stock on the shelves, rather than the floor.” He chuckled practically skipping away.

After sorting out the sherbet disaster, Dean looked at his phone and noticed it was just past midday. They’d been helping Anna, Gabe and Cas for nearly four hours. The shop looked great and Gabe made a big deal of thanking them for all their help, but said he needed to put the finishing touches on himself. Anna thanked them and asked them to drop by for the grand opening on Monday. She and the Novak’s walked them to the door of the shop and as they were saying goodbye, Charlie reached out and hugged Cas, saying how great it was to meet him and she was so excited to spend the summer getting to know him before senior year. Anna and Gabe looked a little shocked as he stiffly, half hugged, half patted her on the back in return, nodding goodbye to Jo and then smiling and saying “Goodbye Dean” in that amazing gravelly voice. “Uh, yeah,” Dean said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly “See ya round Cas.” As they made it back to the impala Dean looked over at Charley and face-palmed. “I didn’t invite them to the fricken’ BBQ!” he said, running back to the shop, straight through the door and right into Castiel, knocking them both awkwardly to the ground.

Dean was kind of on top of Cas and it took him a moment to realise. He was staring down into those blue eyes for what felt like eternity before Cas shocked him back to reality with what was fast becoming Dean’s favourite greeting. “Hello Dean” Cas said, not making any move to get up or displace Dean. “Shit, sorry Cas!” Dean exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing Cas’ hand to help him up too, then realising what he’d done, quickly letting their hands fall and awkwardly apologising again.  
“It’s alright Dean, I’m unharmed, though may I assume you had something important to say before you ran into me?”  
Dean smiled at how formal Cas sounded before remembering he DID infact have something he wanted to say. “Yes! Right! Well, my Mom is having a family BBQ next Saturday and by ‘family’ she really means all our friends and as many people as we can find to have a party with and well, we were kind of hoping that you would come along?” he paused, looking at Cas hopefully then blushing slightly before continuing “Oh, and Anna and Gabe as well of course, kind of a welcome to the neighbourhood and Lawrence and get to know some more people kind of thing, you know, if um, you wanted to, maybe?” he stuttered to a halt at the end of his question. Damnit what was happening to him, he used to be so smooth.  
Cas smiled, genuinely smiled at him, not the shy sideways kind he’d been doing all morning, but a big, toothy grin and Dean’s heart basically leapt out of his chest for a second.  
“We’d love to Dean.”  
Dean’s eyes went wide “Really?”  
“Of course.”  
“Awesome.” Dean breathed more to himself than Cas.  
“Thank you for the invitation, I shall make sure to let Anna and Gabriel know as well.”  
“Right, yeah, okay, bye Cas, for real this time.” Dean said grinning and waving as he headed out the door again. He could have sworn he heard a soft “Goodbye Dean” from behind him as he went.

“Well that went smoothly” Jo scoffed, she and Charlie having witnessed the whole embarrassing ordeal.  
“Shut it Jo.” Dean said, the huge grin on his face negating his harsh words as they hopped into the impala.  
“Dean’s got a da-ate” Charlie sang from beside him in the front seat.  
“It’s not a date Charles”  
Jo snorted from the back seat “Does HE know that?”  
“Just quit it you two, we don’t even know if he’s interested in you know, guys or whatever.” Dean said, his smile faltering a little.  
“Either way, he’s coming to the BBQ, so that’s great!” Charlie said quickly trying to stop Dean from entering his ‘overthink everything and come to a really negative conclusion’ place that he seemed to get to in record time these days.  
“Yeah, he’ll be at the BBQ, so will Anna and Gabe and we’ll get to know them better and have some great new friends in the neighbourhood.” Jo added encouragingly.  
“Yeah. Friends…” Dean muttered to himself, pressing down on the gas and speeding of towards their houses.

♦♥♦

When they got back to the Winchesters house, Ellen and Mary were camped out at the dining table organising food and drink and all sorts of other things for the BBQ then next week. Dean leaned down and kissed Mary’s cheek “Hey Mom, how’s the planning going?”  
“Dean!” She said “I thought you’d be home hours ago!”  
“Oh yeah, sorry about that, I was in and out of Bobby’s sooner than I expected so Charlie, Jo and I went to Chuck’s for a bit and then we kind of wound up helping the new neighbours set up their shop…”  
Mary and Ellen looked up from their planning, “Well, how’d you like the brother’s then?” Ellen asked. Charlie and Jo both looked at Dean as he started talking “The older one, Gabe, he’s cool, likes playing pranks and fun stuff like that, I reckon Sammy would like him and then the younger brother, Castiel, Cas, he,” he paused for a second trying to find the right words to describe Cas “he’s awesome, in a kind of quiet, awkward way and he’s got this intense stare that makes you feel like he’s looking right through you,” he paused again realising that Ellen and Mary were both smiling up at him fondly and his mind flashed back to Jo saying she wasn’t the only one who’d figured out he wasn’t as straight as he thought he was. “Anyway,” he coughed a bit and stopped gushing about Cas “I invited them to the BBQ next weekend and they said they’d come!” he finished quickly and looked back at Charlie and Jo who immediately stopped making what looked suspiciously like heart shapes, with their hands, but continued grinning at him.

“Well, I suppose Sam and I better introduce ourselves at some point, seeing as we’re the only ones who haven’t met them yet!”  
“Where is Sammy?” Dean asked  
“He said he was heading over to Kevin’s to watch some new series on Netflix” Mary replied “He’ll be back later this afternoon, why don’t you three go relax in the lounge while we finish up out here? There’s pie in the fridge if you want it.”  
“Best. Mom. Ever.” Dean replied, grabbing three forks and the pie before heading in to the lounge with the girls. Charlie and Jo were already in the lounge, but Dean was still in ear shot of the kitchen for long enough to hear Ellen say “That boys got it bad Mary.” 

“Well, looks like Jo was right.” He said rounding the corner of the lounge room.  
Jo stared at him for a second and then fumbled with her phone, pulling up a recording app and holding it up to Dean’s face “Say it again!” she laughed as he shoved her phone away, placing the pie on the coffee table and unceremoniously sitting on the ground next to it.  
“I mean about other people figuring it out”  
“Oh” said Jo, “Well, yeah, I mean you’re not exactly the most subtle guy Dean…”  
“Yeah, perhaps dial down the ‘He stares into my soul’ kind of descriptions of people.” Charlie added. Dean responded by throwing a cushion at her, hitting her square in the face, “Shut up Charlie, I did NOT say that!” he said trying to fight the blush rising on his cheeks.  
“Maybe not in those exact words,” she replied, tucking the cushion under her butt and leaning in to open up the pie box. Dean tossed himself flat on his back and stared at the ceiling for a while. “So, does EVERYBODY know?” he asked shyly, sitting up and looking over at his two best friends. Jo and Charlie exchanged looks, having a silent conversation with their eyebrows and little head nods. Charlie mimed shaking something and then pretended to show it to Dean quoting a magic 8 ball answer “Signs point to yes” she said with a shrug  
“I think we were all just waiting until you felt comfortable enough to tell us yourself Dean.” Jo added.  
“We all love you Jerk, no matter what.” Sam added from the door way. The older three jumped a little, not realising that he’d come home, or that he was even listening to their conversation until he threw his opinion into the mix.  
“Thanks, Bitch.” Dean said giving his brother a small smile and stabbing his fork into the pecan pie in front of them.  
“Well, glad that’s settled. Now, who’s up for a Tolkien marathon?” Charlie said, grabbing the remote and finding the first of the Hobbit movies on Dean’s media server. They all spread out in their own spots around the lounge room and camped out for the next five hours getting their Hobbit fix and it was about 6 O’clock when Mary and Ellen stuck their heads in and told them all to come have some dinner.

Ellen had gone through the Winchesters fridge and had started throwing together some grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches for them all. They smelled delicious. “So Mom’s,” Charlie said “How goes the big BBQ plans?” Mary pulled Charlie into a hug and a squeezed her a little “Charlie, It’s going to be a night to remember” she said with a huge grin.  
“Did you just Bilbo me?” Charlie asked “Dean! You’re Mom just Bilbo’d me!”  
“Yeah Charles, the nerd is strong in this family.” Sam said, throwing her a wink.  
“Samuel Winchester, did you just call your mother a nerd?” Mary asked with a look of mock outrage.  
“Ummmmm, no?” he grinned, ducking to the side as Mary threw a piece of cheese at him.  
The rest of their evening continued in much the same vein of laughter and teasing until Dean decided it was time to man up and officially ‘come out’ so to speak.

“Uh, Mom, Ellen” He began, awkwardly playing with the silver ring he wore. “So, I know that you guys already know this and I know that you probably don’t care, but I just wanted to tell you myself that,” he took a deep breathe, looked from Charlie, to Jo, to his little brother and then back to his Mom and second Mom (for want of a better title) “that I’m bisexual.” He closed his eyes as he rushed through the last part and in the silence that followed he slowly opened them to see Ellen giving Mary twenty dollars. “Hey, wh-what are you doing?”  
“Well sugar, we kinda of already figured it out and I bet your Mamma that you wouldn’t tell us until you actually had a boy to bring home, but your Mom here, she had faith that you’d tell us as soon as you were sure we wouldn’t care.” Ellen said before Mary added, “Which we don’t Dean, we love you, no matter what and we just want you to be happy.” Dean let out a breath he didn’t even realise he had been holding and slowly a huge smile crept onto his face. Charlie leapt up and hugged him tightly “I’m so proud of you” She whispered. He looked towards Sam, who’s whole face was lit up with pride and as un-manly and very un-Dean like as it was, he couldn’t help but feel all warm and fuzzy.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Awkwardness & Cuteness.  
> Thanks again for hits & kudos ♥

The next morning, sunshine was streaming into Dean’s room, hitting him square across the face before he gave in a decided to get out of bed. He stood up and staggered sleepily out of his room and down the stairs towards the kitchen, not thinking twice about the fact he was only dressed in a pair of blue pyjama bottoms. About half way down, the most amazing smell reached him and he let out an almost pornographic moan. With messed up hair, still rubbing the sleep from his eyes and practically drooling he entered the kitchen saying “Damn does it smell good in here!”  
“Well hey there Deano, that’s one way to greet the neighbours!” He immediately recognised Gabe’s voice and dropped his hands from his face, as he sleepily registered that Gabe was sitting at their kitchen table. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Anna’s red hair and then, oh God, he saw Cas sitting at their kitchen counter, his eyes slowly trailing up Dean’s naked torso. ‘Please don’t say it’ Dean’s half-awake brain sent out a silent prayer as Cas’ blue eyes met his with a shy smile and that God damned head tilt, he heard “Hello Dean” and Dean was done, he felt a warmth in his stomach and then a blush turned his whole face and chest bright red before he turned and ran back upstairs to his room, slamming the door behind him. 

“Son. Of. A. Bitch!” He said emphasising each syllable by face-planting into the pillow. He heard a quiet knock as someone opened his door a little. Expecting it to be his Mom or Sam, he didn’t lift his face before mumbling “Go Away!” and throw a pillowing over his shoulder at them.   
“Of course, I apologise for intruding” came Cas’ reply. Dean sat up, hugging his pillow,   
“No wait!” he almost shouted “ ‘m sorry.” He mumbled, as he looked shyly towards the doorway where Cas was turning to leave again.   
“Your Mother suggested I bring you some of these,” he held up a plate of blueberry pancakes “she seemed worried that Sam would eat them all before you came back downstairs.” Cas was awkwardly looking at a point just above deans head .   
“Uh, yeah, thanks. I just wasn’t expecting you guys to be here, it kind of surprised me you know?” He reached over and grabbed an old T-shirt from the chair at his desk, slipping it on quickly as he avoided making eye-contact with Cas.  
“Gabriel was trying out recipes and he made an excessive amount of pancakes this morning, so Anna suggested we come and introduce ourselves to your mother. She was under the impression that bringing pancakes would make us seem more desirable.” Cas said, his eyes flicking down just as Dean pulled the T-shirt over his torso. Feeling a little more comfortable being a whole lot more covered, Dean stood up and took the plate out of Cas’ hands.   
“Pancakes make everyone more desirable Cas.” He said with a small smile. They stood, staring into each other’s eyes again and Dean knew it was probably weird, but he just couldn’t look away.   
“Dean!” Mary’s voice snapped them out of their revere “Everything okay up there?” Dean’s lips quirked up into a smile as he shouted back   
“Yeah Mom, everything’s good.” Cas was looking around his room, noticing that it was quite tidy with a few pieces of car memorabilia, lots of photographs and a beautiful bookshelf filled with all sorts of novels.  
“You have a lovely room Dean” Cas said with a strange look on his face.   
“Oh, uh, thanks Cas, but it’s nothing special really.”  
“You did it again.”  
“What?”  
“Called me Cas.”  
“Oh.”  
“I definitely like it.” Cas said smiling at him before turning and heading back downstairs to the kitchen. Dean just watched him go for a few seconds before sighing and hurrying down after him. More awake this time, he noticed that Gabe, Anna, Sam were sitting around one end of their kitchen table, while Cas had taken a seat at the counter again and was listening to Mary as she made another pot of coffee and chatted to him about something. Dean couldn’t help the fleeting thought that Cas looked good in their kitchen, but his thoughts were interrupted by Gabe. “Welcome back Deano! I see Cassie managed to lure you out with my pancakes then” he said as his eyes flicked from Dean to Cas and back to Dean before he gave Sam a small wink “Sorry we caught you in your Jammies” he added with a suggestive eyebrow wiggle. Dean rolled his eyes, ruffling Sam’s hair as he passed. He placed the plate of pancakes on the end of the counter and grabbed his favourite mug. He kissed his Mom on the cheek with a quiet “morning” before grabbing the fresh coffee and pouring himself a mug. As he took his first sip he turned back to see Cas smiling at him.   
“What?” he asked defensively.  
“Nothing” Cas replied sipping his own coffee and switching his gaze to meet Mary’s “Your mother was just telling us about the last family BBQ you held.”  
“Sounds like we’re in for a real treat!” Gabe piped up from behind him  
“They get bigger and better every time.” Sam said excitedly.  
“It certainly seems to be the talk of the neighbourhood” Anna added.  
“All sorts of awesome, that’s how Charlie described the last one” Dean said, slinging an arm around Mary’s shoulders and smiling at Cas “and I reckon this one’ll definitely live up to that!” 

They spent the next hour or so talking away about their plans for the summer, Gabe’s new store (it was going to serve pastries as well as ice cream and candy) and how Anna and the Novak’s were liking Lawrence so far. Eventually, Gabe said he still have a few things to do at the shop and as they were walking out Anna turned to Dean saying “Charlie mentioned yesterday that you had a few classes to take over the next few weeks?”  
“Oh, yeah, gotta make up a few maths tests before senior year.” Dean shrugged.  
“Do you think you could take Castiel along with you?”  
“Anna!”   
“When I rang the school on Friday and gave them his transcript, they said he’d have to earn a few more credits before senior year.” She finished, ignoring Castiel’s interruption.  
“I actually have to be there tomorrow and I’m giving Charlie a ride too, so it’s cool if you wanna tag along Cas.” Dean didn’t miss Anna mouthing “Cas?” questioningly at Gabe and Gabe smirking and shrugging back at her. “We normally leave around 8, if that’s cool?”  
“Yes. Thank you Dean.” Cas replied with a nod as he walked out the door.  
“See you then.” Dean waved a little at Cas’ back before sighing and turning to go back inside.

“So,” Anna said as they got back to their house “Cas?” she looked at her little brother questioningly.  
“Yes Anna?”  
“No, I was just meaning, you never let anyone give you nicknames…”  
“You and Gabriel have been calling me Cassie my entire life.”  
“Yeah, but it’s not like you had a choice in that little bro” Gabe added “You could quite easily tell Deano to quit it…”  
“I don’t want him to quit it,” Cas replied shyly looking between his siblings “Dean’s nice to me. He isn’t calling me Cas to make fun of me, or because he thinks my name is weird, so, I think I’m okay with it.”  
Gabe and Anna shared another knowing smile, their little brother may be socially unaware, but he definitely wasn’t subtle.  
“Okay, Cas it is!” said Anna  
“Nope, sorry bro, you’ll always be Cassie to me!” Gabe grinned, hugging Cas firmly “Anyways, I’m off to make sure everything ready for tomorrow, you two have fun without me,” he said wandering over to their car “But not too much fun!” he said before climbing in and driving away.

♦♥♦

Anna and Cas spent the afternoon together watching some of Anna’s favourite films and enjoying each other’s company. Anna stood up and stretched “What do you say Cas,” she asked, liking the sound of his new nickname “think it’s time for a run?” He smiled up at her and nodded. Once they were both in their running gear, Anna tucked her phone into an arm band, started some music and was headed out the door. They ran down the street and around the neighbourhood in a mile long loop, coming back down the street from the opposite direction.

Dean had convinced Sam, Charlie and Jo to help him wash the impala that afternoon. Mary, having over-heard their plans, had snuck out and parked her car next to Deans and sent Ellen a message to move her truck into their driveway as well, so by the time the four of them got outside, there were three cars waiting for them, instead of one. Dean laughed out loud and shouted back over his shoulder “Sure Mom, we’d LOVE to wash your cars while we’re out here!” He heard her laugh from the kitchen “Thanks Sweetie!”  
Dean opened their garage and set up the old boom box and tuning in to their local radio station. “What, no AC/DC?” Jo asked  
“I’m not driving so I thought I’d give you a break from my music, but I can always grab the tapes if you-“  
“NO!” They all shouted.  
“As much as we love you Dean, listening to the same 10 tapes over and over is not high on ANYONE’S list of priorities but yours.” Sam said with the hint of a bitch face.  
“You said it Sam-wise!” Charlie added, high fiving the younger Winchester.  
“Hence, Radio” Dean muttered as he moved around the garage and found them some sponges, buckets and car-wash, while Sam unwound the hose and Charlie and Jo grabbed a chamois out of the trunk of the impala. No way was Dean leaving his baby to drip-dry and everyone knew it.

Dean and Charlie were standing together arguing over who should wash what and which car had the smallest surface area, when Sam had an idea “Hey Jo, get the tap would you?” She looked from him to where Dean and Charlie where standing and grinned back “First blood” she said fist-bumping Sam and then going to turn the tap on full ball.  
Dean and Charlie yelled as the cold water blasted over them.   
“GODDAMNIT SAMMY!”  
“SAAAAAAAAAAAAAM!”  
Dean and Charlie yelled simultaneously as they grabbed the buckets and ran to the tap on the other side of the house.  
“It’s on bitch!” Dean yelled to his little brother  
“How could you betray me Joanna Beth!” Charlie cried dramatically.  
Sam and Jo were laughing their heads off as Dean came back around throwing a bucket of water over Sam and Charlie launched at Jo with two huge, wet sponges in hand. They wind up wrestling for the hose, completely saturated and laughing hysterically.  
“Okay, okay!” Said Sam holding his hands out between them “Truce?”  
“You started this” Said Charlie arm raised to throw a sponge in his direction  
“And now I’m finishing it” he grinned at her. Dean, who had Jo in a head lock and was in the process of wringing a sponge out over her head, let her go and held his hand out “Truce then? Or we’ll never get these damn cars washed”  
She laughed & shook his hand, grabbing the sponge from him and lobbing it at Mary’s car instead. 

They had cleaned 2 out of 3 cars and were just starting on the impala when Jo smirked at Dean, tilting her head towards the street “Picked a great day for a wet T-shirt contest Winchester”.   
“Huh?” Dean said, turning to see Anna and Cas running together, apparently they were both fitness freaks. Dean gave Jo a very pointed ‘shut up’ glare as Anna put her hand out to slow Castiel down and they both walked over to the group of saturated teenagers.  
“Hey guys, having fun?” Anna asked  
“You know it!” Said Charlie, flicking some water in Anna and Cas’ direction.  
Anna whistled, running her hand along the bonnet of the impala “67 impala, nice ride.”   
Dean smirked as Charlie, Jo and Sam all groaned and rolled their eyes. “Anna, meet Baby.” He said   
“Baby?” asked Cas tilting his head to the side.  
“Yeah, she’s basically part of the family,” Dean grinned at him  
“So she’ll be at the BBQ next Saturday?” Cas asked, earning blank stares from Charlie and Jo, an eyebrow raise from Sam and causing Dean to erupt in the most beautiful laugh Castiel had ever heard.   
“Yeah Cas,” Dean said still chuckling and nudging his wet shoulder against Castiels “She’ll be here.” Anna smiled at Dean. It wasn’t often that people actually got Castiels’ attempts at humour.

Dean realised he was still leant against Cas’ arm and took a quick step back, still smiling, and starting to feel less idiotic about his actions around the dark haired boy. “So, what are you two training for something? Or are you just fitness nuts like Sammy over here?” he gestured with his thumb over his shoulder.  
Anna laughed “We’ve always run together, it was a good excuse to get out of the house when we were still living at home.”  
“You should take Sammy sometime, he can show you some of the trails and things around here.”  
“Ah, yeah, I could do that!” Sam said, giving Dean a ‘WTF’ look.  
“You don’t run?” Castiel asked Dean curiously  
Sam and Jo burst out laughing at his question, startling Cas a little “Sorry Cas!” Jo said “I forgot you don’t really KNOW Dean yet!”  
“Even as the star quarterback, he only runs when he REALLY has to!” Sam added  
Dean glared at them “Shut up, I’m all about the sprints man, just cause I don’t like running in circles for no reason…” then he realised what he said and looked from Anna to Cas “Uh, no offence guys”   
“None taken” Castiel replied, “As Anna said, it gave us a good excuse to get out of the house as well as something that just the two of us could share. I guess it’s somehow turned into a hobby of ours now. I’m sure it’s not hard to believe that Gabe however, share’s YOUR view of running Dean” Cas finished with a small smile. They were doing it again, Dean was staring at Cas and Cas was staring back oblivious to everything around them.   
Sam coughed awkwardly “We should probably finish washing these cars”  
“Yeah, we should” Dean replied, looking away from his new friend “We’ll see you in the morning, right Cas?”  
“Yes, thank you Dean.”  
Anna gave Cas a little push and they both jogged home.  
“In the morning?!” Charlie asked excitedly  
“Yeah, Cas needs to check in at school or something, so he’s coming with us tomorrow.” Dean said as if it was obvious. Charlie just grinned at him.  
“Looks like it’s just you and me tomorrow Sammy!” Jo said messing up Sam’s wet hair  
“Looks like,” he replied picking her up and spinning her around, “and don’t call me Sammy.”  
“Dean calls you Sammy all the time!” Jo said pouting a little  
“That’s cause he’s my little brother and he’ll always be a cheeky little 6 year old to me, hey Sammy” Dean said winking at them  
Sam put Jo down and starting to hose down the impala rolling his eyes at Dean and mutter “Whatever, Jerk.” In his brothers direction.


End file.
